The present invention relates generally to vehicle systems and, more particularly, to systems for securing an aircraft door upon removal of the door from a fuselage.
Many passenger aircraft have an overwing exit that is accessible by a door in the side of the aircraft fuselage. Overwing exits are primarily self-help exits meaning that in an emergency egress the passengers seated immediately adjacent to the exit will be responsible for assessing external hazards and opening the door of the exit. To use the overwing exit, e.g., during an emergency egress situation, the door at the overwing exit is manually unlatched and detached from the fuselage by a person inside the aircraft cabin. In some types of aircraft, the safety briefing card instructs the passenger to pull the door into the cabin and place the door on the armrests of the seats in the exit aisle. This approach is problematic, though, because it is difficult to balance the door on the armrests of the seats without the door sliding off of the armrests and blocking the egress path to the overwing exit. Moreover, even if a first passenger does successfully balance the door on the armrests, another passenger may accidently bump the door and/or seats while making their way to the overwing exit, and this accidental bumping may dislodge the door from the armrests such that the door falls down into the exit row and obstructs the egress path to the overwing exit.
In other types of aircraft, the safety briefing card instructs the passenger to throw the door out of the cabin through the overwing exit. However, this action is problematic in that a door that is thrown out of the overwing exit might land on the wing and pierce the skin of the wing and cause a fuel leak. Another hazard with throwing the door outside the aircraft through the overwing exit is that the door may get stuck on the wing and block egress of the passengers from the cabin. Additionally, the door is typically very heavy, sometimes as much as forty pounds, and it can be difficult for some passengers to throw the door into clear space outside of the aircraft.